1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to furniture and, more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to collapsible furniture and a method to collapse and assemble collapsible furniture using plug joint technology.
2. Description of the Background Art
Historically, the word “collapsible” has been equated with “foldable” or “easy to disassemble” when used in connection with furniture. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,972,562 to Montrose for Collapsible Furniture, discloses and claims a foldable chair. U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,542 discloses and claims foldable furniture, including a chair, a table and a stool. There are many different ways of collapsing furniture by folding it, as disclosed and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,562,050 which discloses a system using corner hinges to facilitate folding furniture.
Other examples of collapsible furniture are contained in patents disclosing and claiming furniture which can be disassembled to for ease of storage or transportation. Examples of those systems are presented in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,928,333 to Ewert (collapsible chair) and 4,141,590 to Lafer (collapsible bed).
Although, as illustrated herein above, the prior art reveals many types of collapsible furniture and many methods of collapsing furniture, there are aspects of the art which have not been fully explored or realized. The majority of collapsible furniture still relies on the utilization of metal hardware, hinges or fasteners of some sort.
Practically, the mere fact furniture can somehow be disassembled, does not make it “collapsible.” In today's trend toward easing and reducing the steps necessary to carry out any task, it is necessary that collapsing furniture takes place easily, with a minimum of steps, quickly, and overall in a user-friendly manner, resulting in a “bundle” which can be easily stored and/or transported. Any collapsing and re-assembling instructions must be easy to follow. The user of collapsible furniture must be able to reproduce the collapsing and reassembling steps easily without having to consult any sketches or instructions after a few uses. Also, the sustained repetition of collapsing and reassembling steps over a long period of time should not result in undue ware and tear of the parts involved or of the furniture itself. Finally, any collapsible furniture design must be easy to produce en masse and simple enough to be affordable to every day consumers.
This invention was borne from frustration with contemporary furniture design and construction techniques. Furniture which is marketed as cheap and affordable as well as intelligently designed always seems to pose an assembly nightmare. The furniture market now appears to be flooded with do-it-yourself kits, all containing lengthy instruction manuals as well as several bags of hardware and cheap hand-tools. The process of assembly of the collapsible furniture of today's market is usually lengthy, difficult and confusing. Once the piece of furniture is finally assembled, the prospect of disassembly can be daunting. The problems mentioned herein have lead to the discouraging trend of “throw away furniture”. People move to a new city, buy cheap furniture, and either leave it, or give it away when the time to move comes again. As our society becomes increasingly mobile, our furniture designers have to react.